George A. Porterfield

George Alexander Porterfield (24 November 1822-27 February 1919) was a Confederate States Army colonel during the American Civil War. At the time of his death in 1919, he was the third-last surviving Mexican-American War veteran.

Biography
George Alexander Porterfield was born in Berkeley County, Virginia in 1822, and he graduated from the Virginia Military Institute in 1844 and served as a US Army lieutenant during the Mexican-American War. He became a farmer in Jefferson County, West Virginia in 1855, and when the American Civil War broke out, he became a Confederate States Army militia colonel. His small force of 800 raw recruits was routed by the Union Army at the Battle of Philippi on 3 June 1861, and he was relegated to staff positions for the next 11 months until he resigned. In 1871, he founded a bank in Charleston, West Virginia, and he died in 1919 at the age of 96.